Camera Crisis in London

We booked some time ago to go on a coach trip to London to visit the Houses of Parliament. The date for this outing was set for 10th September but was then brought forward by a week by the inconvenience of parliament being in session earlier than anticipated! This made it touch and go as to whether Brian would be able to go due to the late combining of the wheat. As it turns out we are still waiting for the combine to arrive and he was able to have his day out.

Our day started out with free time in Covent Garden and then a plan to reboard the coach to be taken to the Houses of Parliament. We quickly decided we did not want to spend that long at Covent Garden so made our own arrangements to walk to our second venue and meet the coach steward there. 

We did have a brief wander around Covent Garden where there was a pretty strong smell of latex. The reason soon became obvious. The whole of the roof space was a cloud of white balloons.

Quite impressive but I am not sure what they were all about.

We then made our way across Waterloo Bridge and along the South Bank. This is for me where the trouble started although I did not know until later. I was happily snapping photos as I went INCLUDING a lovely carousel. It was only when we got as far as the London Eye that I realised that my camera was saying no card in situ and had stopped storing all the photos I had taken since leaving Covent Garden. So annoying! After a fiddle I got it going and on we went.

I lived in London for 6 years but it is 28 years since I left. I tended to avoid the tourist areas a lot of the time but it was interesting to look at what is new and what was there then.

The skyline has changed dramatically ( sorry no photo of that for the above reason!) There was certainly no London Eye then,

Buskers? There was always plenty of them.

                                                   

Some changes are more subtle. Examining the West Door of Westminster Abbey and considering William and Kate emerging (it was Charles and Di at St Paul's in my day) we noticed the sculptured figures above the door of 10 Christian martyrs. Thes were added in 1998 but blend well with the rest of the abbey.

Walking around Parliament Square the statue of Ghandi with the most remarkable piercing eyes is another addition.

I managed to miss off his rather important feet. The figure of Lloyd George is also new unlike the towering statue of Winston Churchill.

Then it was time for our tour. I had visited the public gallery of the House of Commons but had never been on a tour. So here's a view of Big Ben that was most certainly there when I lived in the big city but from a new view for me as we are about to enter Westminster Hall.

There was no photography allowed on the tour until nearly the end. The tour was extremely informative and interesting. I had not anticipated how decorative the building was and also enjoyed the pictorial history of Britain as we viewed the various frescoes, paintings and statues. The tour is tiring we were not allowed to sit in many of the rooms in particular in the House of Commons and House of Lords. It took in total a good 90 minutes. 

When we came to the penultimate room St Stephen's hall and were allowed to get our cameras out I found that yet again mine was playing up. Despite fiddling with itduring our tea and cake in the tea rooms I had to resort to my IPhone for a final few photos.

Westminster Hall.

Leaving the tea rooms.

What a great day! I arrived home tired but pleased with our day out and I was even more pleased when I managed to fix my camera issue and download the pictures that I did have.